Weighed And Found Wanting - [Daniel 5]

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My all -time favorite electioneering slogan, my favorite political slogan of all time is
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Daniel 525. That was an actual political slogan in a campaign,
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Daniel 525. It was 1989, it was Nicaragua. Daniel Ortega is the
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Daniel. Five was, he's the fifth person down on the ballot.
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And 25 was, it's September 25th. So vote for Daniel Ortega, fifth one down, the 25th of September.
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But Christians who were in Nicaragua at the time in 1989 saw this a little bit differently because Daniel 525 says in the
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Bible, God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
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Ortega and his communist fellows for years persecuted Christians there in Nicaragua.
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They outlawed Christmas, they outlawed Easter. Their economics levels dropped down to second only
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Haiti. And in 1989, Mr. Ortega lost in a landslide.
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Daniel 525. Let's turn our Bibles to Daniel chapter 5 and look at this great chapter today.
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We finished 1 Corinthians going verse by verse, Romans is next. But I was dying to preach about Barabbas last week and who
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Jesus was in the life of Barabbas. And I've been dying all this week to preach Daniel chapter 5.
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So today, Daniel chapter 5, all of Daniel 5. And then next time we'll go through Romans chapter by chapter.
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Now, I love Daniel 5 for lots of reasons. One is it shows not a lot about Daniel, but it shows the
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God of Daniel. This book is all about the Lord. We don't have a lot of details about Daniel, his age, a lot of his background, just a few little snippets of his life.
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Because everything in this book speaks to this, God will be vindicated. Things might not look like they're going according to God's plans, but they are.
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And this book drives us to think we ought to walk by faith and not by sight.
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That when you look at the world now in the political, economic, social, worldly perspectives, there's a way to think
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Christianly, and there's a way to think non -Christianly, un -Christianly, achristianly.
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There's a right way to think. And Daniel 5 is history, yes, but it's theological history, driven so that you say to yourself, the same
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God of Daniel is my God. I can look at the political scheme and all the things that are going on in the world and everything else.
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Does God care? Does God rule? Does God reign? I wonder if God's still in control.
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How could a God who says he's sovereign let the world go like this? Daniel 5 answers that question and many more.
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If you're a Christian, you should be encouraged as you go through Daniel 5, even though you say, I know the story. And if you're not a believer, my goal today is to show you the testimony of Scripture, so that you see your life before God is weighed and found wanting, so that you'll turn to the risen
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Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for sinners like you.
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As you read through Daniel 5, it's like sitting back watching a train wreck about to happen, but there's nothing you can do about it.
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The train's too heavy, the train's going too fast, the car's too stuck on the tracks, and you just see this impending doom coming upon a man who has got so much bravado and sheer arrogance and oozes a kind of strutting peacock kind of life.
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God will vindicate his name. I don't care who you are, how powerful you are, who's the most powerful person in the world.
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God's plans are not frustrated by Babylon or by any person. Daniel 2 says
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God changes the times and epochs. He removes kings and establishes kings, and the same
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God in this chapter is the God we have been worshiping.
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Now, just to give you a little idea on Daniel, so you can kind of think through this, Daniel, written around 600
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BC, probably Daniel wrote this book in the last decade of his life.
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It didn't look like Yahweh's glory was being vindicated and held up for honor, but Daniel knows differently, and he wants to write an account so we see that God's plans are going to be fulfilled, just like Esther, right?
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In spite of circumstances, God is in control. He is to be trusted. Now, the critics hate this book.
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They can't stand it because it's true, and it's got all kinds of prophetic things in the last few chapters. But let me just read you one
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Bible verse that can take care of all the critics. Whenever I want to know, is the Old Testament authentic? Do you know what
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I do? How did Jesus view the Old Testament? Matthew 24.
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Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, let the reader understand.
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Daniel wrote Daniel, and he wrote the first part in Hebrew, and the last part in Hebrew, and the middle part in Aramaic.
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I wonder why. Why did he start off in Hebrew, then move to Aramaic in chapter 2, verse 4b, and then later switch back to Hebrew?
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And the answer is there's two different kinds of readers. So when the readers who spoke Aramaic read it, they would realize judgment is coming unless I repent.
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And the Hebrew people who would read it, they would say this, you know, even though we're stuck here, we're exiles,
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God's still to be trusted. And so it moves fluently from Hebrew to Aramaic, back to Hebrew, because judgment is the message in Aramaic, and hope is the message in Hebrew.
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This is an Aramaic section, chapter 5. Here's my goal this morning, not for you to dare to be a
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Daniel, and dare to make it known. How does the rest of the song go? I'm glad you don't know it.
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I'm just too shy. The hero of Daniel is not Daniel.
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Oh, he's going to have good character. He's going to do the right thing. We have to look past Daniel to see the
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God Daniel worships. Now, from chapter 4 to chapter 5, moving from Nebuchadnezzar to Belshazzar, 20 years has elapsed.
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Nebuchadnezzar moves off the scene. His son takes his place and is assassinated. By his own brother -in -law.
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This guy rules for four years. He's killed in battle. Then there's another ruler. Then we have a guy named
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Nabonius. And he has a son named Belshazzar. And we pick up chapter 5, verse 1, with Belshazzar's contribution to the feast, and that is unrestrained sensuality.
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Let's pick it up in chapter 5, verse 1. Pretty much the party's over. Oh, I forgot to tell you.
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He thought he was very safe. Huge high towers, huge high walls.
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The walls were so wide, four chariots could be spread apart, shoulder to shoulder, as it were, to drive on top of these walls.
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They had plenty of water. The Euphrates went right through the middle of the city. 20 years worth of food all hoarded in there.
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Impregnable. So what does the king do? Verse 1. King Belshazzar, his dad's the real king, but he's the second in charge.
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He's the king of this area. Made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of a thousand. Who drinks that kind of...
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Who does this in front of these kind of people? I think the answer is you do this because you can do it.
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Because you're in charge and you're the king and you've got all these resources. But if you're reading this with the lens of the
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Old Testament, here's what you do. Anytime there's a banquet, you should be going like this.
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Uh -oh, banquet's not too good. Watch out. Genesis 40, on the third day, which was
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Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the cupbearer and the head of the baker among the servants.
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He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, but he hanged the chief baker. Esther chapter 1, big banquet.
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And here he has this huge feast, strutting his stuff, pride and arrogance.
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It's been reported in History of the World, Alexander the Great invited 10 ,000 people to his wedding.
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10 ,000 people. I read another account,
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Ashurnashapal said he invited 69 ,754 guests to his banquet as he dedicated a new city in Kala in 1879
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BC. Athanasius said he slaughtered oxen, camel, chickens, geese, horses, a day, 1 ,000.
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Now here's Belshazzar, he's having a big party. Maybe he's saying, you know what, the hordes outside of the city, the
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Medes and the Persians, they don't bother me. Or he maybe knows his goose is cooked and so might as well have one last party.
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Eat, drink, for tomorrow we what? Die. Oh, sorry, he's going to die tonight. He didn't know that part of the proverb.
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And his name means Marduk, protect the king. Marduk, the false god, protect the king.
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We're going to have a showdown here at this OK Corral, if you will, between Marduk and Yahweh, whose name will be vindicated.
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Belshazzar was a wicked man. One of his workers made a comment about one of his concubines and killed him.
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He's a wicked man. Chapter 4 in Nebuchadnezzar, at the beginning, there's some nice things said about Nebuchadnezzar.
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He says some nice things. It's almost like ahead of time, chapter 4 lets us know there's going to be good things happen in Nebuchadnezzar, even though it's going to be bad.
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Here we don't get any of that. We just have this Bacchanalian kind of drunken feast going on. Sheer bravado for this guy.
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He's drinking before his guests. This is theater. This is, I'm in charge, I can do this.
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Look at me. Belshazzar, verse 2, the issue isn't really going to be drunkenness, although that's always sin.
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When he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, be brought that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.
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Hey, we have conquered the Jews. Marduk rules over Yahweh. Give me those things from Solomon's temple that prove our superiority, because we're going to drink.
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Here's to you, Yahweh, you scum of the earth. We win. Marduk is better. Cheers. It's one thing if you're
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Nebuchadnezzar and prideful. It's another thing if you're blasphemous. These vessels symbolize the presence of God.
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And now Belshazzar is going to say, you know, those people outside the Medes and the Persians, we don't have to worry about them because we've already had victory over Israelites.
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God reminds me of Paul's words in Romans 1, even as they did not like to retain
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God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do things that are not fitting, who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.
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And the text says what? When Belshazzar tasted the wine. What does this mean? You don't drink the wine until the king drinks the wine.
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Runners on your mark, get set. I was going to say the shotgun goes off. The starting gun goes off.
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This is like Daytona 500 and the flags go, start your engines, go drink. I said to the first service when
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I was moving from California to New England 16 years ago, I thought the Yankees had more refined sensibilities, but there's a lot of closet
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NASCAR people here. We've conquered the king of the
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Jews. We've conquered the king of the Jews. Now the text reads about Nebuchadnezzar, his father.
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Father just means ancestor, predecessor. It's there because he should have learned from Nebuchadnezzar.
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He's in the line of Nebuchadnezzar. He should have learned from great grandfather, a great, great grandfather. However he fits into this, the relationship in his ancestry should have spoke volumes about what
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God did in Nebuchadnezzar's life. Now normally when you would have a banquet, if you were a king, you wouldn't bring the women out.
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You can see Esther chapter one for that. But here with this brazen bravado, like bring out the wives, bring out the concubines, bring them all out.
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And going past normal propriety, he says, let's take those holy vessels and drink from them.
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Normally they would say, you know, there's some kind of maybe hex on them or some kind of voodoo kind of thing. We better not use those.
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But here, forget that. Conquests of the past might help us with the
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Medes and the Persians outside. He didn't just run out of cups. Here's to Marduk.
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Hear, hear. Three cheers for Marduk. Sounds weird. The stage is perfectly set.
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God will intervene. The triune God of the universe has had enough.
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Verse three, for shock value, it's stated again, like you almost want to choke when you read this. They brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem.
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And the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines drank from them.
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The audacity, the insolence, the shamelessness. Herod had nothing on him.
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Which Herod? I don't care. Pick one. Proverbs 18, before destruction, the heart of a man is what?
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Haughty. These people act like Philippians 3 language when
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Paul said, these people whose end is destruction, whose
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God is their bellies and whose glory is their shame. Verse four, they drank the wine and praised the
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God of gold, silver. See, that's what they made Marduk with. Bronze, iron, wood, stone.
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And the worship leader is Belshazzar. This is like taking the menorah of Israel and lighting it on fire so you can commit adultery in the light.
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Babylon the great, Belshazzar the great. This is a picture of 1
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Thessalonians 5. While they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child and they will not escape.
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It sounds like Isaiah 47, for you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, no one sees me.
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I am and there is no one else besides me. Therefore, evil shall come upon you.
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You shall not know where it arises. Trouble shall fall upon you. You will not be able to put it off.
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Desolation shall come upon you suddenly. Look at verse five. Suddenly, the fingers of a man's hand emerged.
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King James says, in the same hour. And began writing opposite the lampstand. Why is that important? Because you could see it.
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It is lit up. On the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. Now the text doesn't say the people saw it.
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And the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing. Talk about kind of spooky.
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There is no flashing, no bells, no loud thunder,
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God talking. You are doomed. You can just imagine it is getting louder.
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As the drinks are poured, it is getting louder and louder. And now, Belshazzar looks over on the wall.
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By the way, why did they have plastered walls back in those days? Chalk like walls.
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Because the king would write his exploits on those walls. We have victory over these people.
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We have won over these people. This is a scoreboard. You write down how your kingdom is so great.
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Just so everybody knows. It is just kind of a nice mural effect. Of how great we are. And these are all the peoples we have dominated and killed.
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All of a sudden, silently, suddenly, kind of spookily. Is that a word?
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It is now. The hands that took those wine goblets and said,
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I defy you, God, have to deal with a different kind of hand.
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A judgment hand that is writing something on there. And only the king can see it.
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Must have been something crazy going on in his mind.
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You can see some of the hand, but not all of the hand. It is writing. Where is the body? Whose body is it?
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Is there a body? How big is it? Big enough to see it, that is for sure.
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I think he is no longer needing coffee to wake up. I think he is quite sober by now. I think the wine is sour.
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Food is bitter. Music is off key. Some kind of anterior part of the hand that starts writing things.
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This isn't God's hand. This is a hand from God. God doesn't have a body. Petrified king first.
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Then the people follow. On that same wall where they would write the titles and victories and exploits of the king's greatness.
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Something just starts writing. Verse six.
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The people don't seem to see that first. They see the king. Verse six. Then the king's face grew pale.
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His thoughts alarmed him. His hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together. Where is
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Marduk now? Divine judgment. In Aramaic it reads,
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His brightness changed from him. I don't know if you are in medicine or not, but it looks like he is having what? Heart attack.
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Parties turned into a nightmare now. Isaiah 13 says,
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Wail, the day of the Lord is near. It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will fall limp and every man's heart will melt.
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They will be terrified. Pains and anguish will take hold of them. They will writhe like a woman in labor.
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They will look at one another in astonishment. Their faces aflame. That's exactly what's happening.
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If I was going to make a soundtrack behind this, it would be the off -tune screeching of some violin.
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But there wasn't even that. It's just silence. The sound of silence.
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Now some people think, you know what? He's getting converted. Because when you do have that kind of response physically, that must be conversion.
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Edward said, A work of God's grace is not to be judged by effects on bodies of men, such as tears, trembling, groans, loud outcries, agonies of body, or failing of bodily strength.
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The reason is because Scripture nowhere gives us any such rule. Verse 7,
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The king called aloud to bring in the conjurers, Chaldeans, the diviners. King spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, Any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me will be clothed with purple, have a necklace of gold around his neck, and have authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.
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Abonadus, me, then them. Third in rule. And you knew,
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I'm sorry, you know he had to be thinking to himself, This is all because he'd been informed.
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And now he's afraid, so afraid he's going to give third in charge. Verse 8, Then all the king's wise men came in.
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All the king's horses came in. I'm sorry, that's not in the text. But they could not read the inscription or make known its interpretation of the king.
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Why? These people were smart. It's not like they couldn't read it. Maybe it's straight from top to bottom.
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Maybe it's some kind of symbols, weird shape. We don't know. They just couldn't do it. So what is the response of the king?
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Then King Belshazzar, verse 9, was greatly alarmed. That word is used in chapter 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
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All the Aramaic chapters alarmed. His face grew even paler.
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Probably looked like that board up there, that plaster, chalk white. And his nobles were perplexed.
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Will somebody put some sanity into this guy's mind? How about the queen mother? She'll know what to do.
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Verse 10, The queen, now his wife was at the beginning of the banquet. So this is the queen mother.
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Entered the banquet hall because of the words of the king and his nobles. The queen spoke and said, O king, live forever.
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Do not let your thoughts alarm you or your face be pale. Pull yourself together, man.
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I don't know what mother -in -law says that, but this particular one did. Don't let your thoughts alarm you.
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Act like a king. Some say she was the wife of Nebuchadnezzar or the wife of Merodach.
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Doesn't matter. She knew of Daniel. So she says, verse 11,
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You know the story. There's a man in your kingdom of whom there's a spirit of the holy gods. And in the days of your father, illumination, divine illumination, insight, wisdom, like the wisdom of gods were found in him.
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King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father, the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans, and diviners.
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It's like this new king came on scene and he didn't want to have anything to do with Daniel or Daniel's gods. So he just relegates him back down to the stay out of my sight mode.
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And the way Hebrew language does it, and the way Aramaic language does it, the way the storytellers say these things back in the east, they just repeat them.
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And here it is. This was because an extraordinary spirit, knowledge and insight, excuse me, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas, solving of all difficult problems were found in this
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Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Let Daniel now be summoned and he will declare the interpretation.
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And now here comes Belteshazzar in front of Belteshazzar making sure the one knows who's in charge.
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Then Daniel was brought in before the king. King Spokane said, are you that Daniel? You know, that slave
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Daniel, that prisoner Daniel, that conquered Daniel. Are you that Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah, whom my father, the king brought from Judah, me king, you slave.
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But he didn't know as Nathan was to David as to Daniel. Samuel was to Saul.
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Daniel is to Belteshazzar. Now I have heard about you, that spirit of the gods is in you and that illumination inside extraordinary wisdom has been found in you.
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Just now the wise men and conjurers were brought in before me that they might read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me, but they could not declare the interpretation of the message.
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But I personally have heard about you, that you were able to give interpretation, solve difficult problems.
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Now, if you were able to read the inscription and make its interpretation known to me, you'll be clothed with purple, wear a necklace of gold around your neck and will have authority as a third ruler of the kingdom.
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Didn't really matter because everything's over that night. And you know what
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Daniel said? I don't want your money. Daniel answered and said before the king, keep your gifts for yourselves or give your rewards to someone else.
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However, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him. I'm not like hire for the other people.
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I don't do this for money. I do it for the glory of God. Everything in me wants to now launch on a little sermonette right here about how we try to get people to come and speak at the church and they tell me their honorariums that they must get.
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If a church gives an honorarium, that's great. But if you expect an honorarium to go to a place, you don't seem to me to be acting like Daniel buying servants.
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You can go online and find out some superstar Christian speakers. They have a little fill out the form. You have to pay all these things and at the bottom, what the honorarium will be.
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Not like Daniel. And Daniel doesn't even say, oh, king, you're the greatest. And he's stern.
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Look at 18. Oh, king, the most high God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory.
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By the way, you should know all this. And majesty to Nebuchadnezzar, your father. Because of the grandeur which he bestowed on him, all the peoples, nations and men of every language feared and trembled before him.
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You should be doing that too. Whomever he wished, he killed. Whomever he wished, he spared alive.
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And whomever he wished, he elevated. Whomever he wished, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he started to moo like a cow.
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That's what happened. But he says here was disposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken away from him.
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The prideful will be punished. He was also driven away from mankind and his heart was made like that of beasts.
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His dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized that the
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Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind and that he sets over it whomever he wishes.
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Yet you, verse 22. This is the right response to being humbled by God.
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This is the right response to the God of the universe. Yet you, yet you, his son, you should have known this.
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Have not humbled your heart even though you knew all this. One man said pride is like plagiarism.
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It attempts to grasp for ourselves the glory that belongs for another. Proverbs, excuse me,
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Romans 2. Do you think lightly like Belshazzar of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
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Now, if you look at verses 22 and 23, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're 14 times,
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I believe in the ESV. Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart even though you knew this.
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You knew all this, but you have exalted yourself against Lord of heaven. It brought the vessels of his house before you and you and your noble nobles.
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Your wives, your concubines have been drinking wine from them. You praise the gods of silver, of bronze, iron, wood, stone, which you do not see, hear or understand.
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By the way, that's pretty amazing. They're worshiping gods that don't talk. And the God of the universe talks and he just did look at the wall.
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But the God in whose hand are your life breath and your ways you have not glorified.
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This is a lawsuit. He's the prosecuting attorney. Marduk is mute.
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Yahweh is speaking. And he's speaking right there on that plaster wall. And what do these dumb idols say?
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Nothing. No wonder idols are called Hebel. They're emptiness. They're unsatisfactory.
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They're unsatisfying. And remember, hand means what in these days?
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Power. Your life is in God's hand.
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For those who know about Christ Jesus and won't follow, this sounds as bad as the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 10.
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How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who was trampled underfoot? The son of God.
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Job 12 says in whose hand is every living thing and the breath of all mankind. So it says in verse 24, then the hand was sent from him.
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And this inscription was written out three words to repeated twice.
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Here is the tombstone. Here's the gravestone. Here's the epitaph of Belshazzar.
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Now, this is the inscription that was written out. Three units of money, by the way. In passive form, it means numbered, numbered, weighed, divided, are here in Aramaic.
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Mene, mene, tekel, ufarsin. Mene is a mina, about 50 shekels.
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Tekel is a shekel. That's easy to remember, isn't it, kids? What's a tekel? It's a shekel. Makes it easy.
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Tekel, shekel. Ufarsin is half a shekel. And now we get the interpretation.
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Verse 26, Mene, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. I've had enough of this from you,
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Belshazzar. It's time to push the power button off. I'm unplugging you. The jig is up.
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Had enough. All systems shut down. Your number's up. God's called your number.
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Tekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.
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Hannah prayed in 1 Samuel 2, with God, actions are weighed. And so it's a weight scale.
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And so here is the righteousness and holiness and justice of God and what he requires in his law.
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And there's not enough for Belshazzar to weigh that out. He's found wanting.
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He didn't meet the standard. He's found deficient. Egyptian books of the dead picture men being weighed in balances after death.
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Puts their heart on one side. Is it enough? And then verse 28,
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Perez, your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians. It's not even future because it's happening right now.
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What Belshazzar didn't know is they dried up the river partially because they rerouted it, the
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Euphrates, so it was low enough that the enemy could just walk on the dry banks and up into the city and kill them.
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That's exactly what happened. Can you imagine Daniel saying this? We've got people get invited to the
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White House and they can't get it out of their mouth. Thank you for letting me come. I appreciate it. I'm honored to be here, but I'm not a diplomat.
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I'm giving you an ultimatum. And this is what the scriptures teach about sin and righteousness and the judgment to come.
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And there is a savior Christ Jesus the Lord. And I want to make sure you believe in him. That's my message to you,
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O King. Where are those kind of people? Daniel could have easily said, because this king could have easily killed
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Daniel. Okay, how can I do this? If I say some nice things, then I'll garner an audience, and then they won't think
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I'm a loon and then they'll listen. And so let's see, what's that say? Belshazzar, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
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He thinks you're special. He's got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in his heart for you,
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Daniel. Oh, good. Now he'll listen to me. Now I have a platform. That's what evangelicals do with our own president.
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Where are the prophets? Where are those giving the ultimatums? You have a message from God and you deliver the message in kindness and gentleness, humility.
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But we have a message. And by the way, the world doesn't like the message. So why do we think they should? If the world's hated us, it's because they already hated
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Jesus. Oh, let's see. I don't think I quite read that right. God's got a crazy love for you.
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How risky is it for Daniel to lose his head if he tells the truth? But Daniel does anyway, because it's not
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Daniel. It's the God of Daniel. The triune God of Daniel, verse 29. Don't you wish it would have said this?
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Don't you wish it would have been like Nebuchadnezzar? Then Belshazzar repented.
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And he believed. Then Belshazzar gave orders, closed
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Daniel with purple, put a necklace of gold around his neck, issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as a third ruler in the kingdom.
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Nothing about honoring the Lord. Nothing about recognizing the same thing that Nebuchadnezzar did.
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That night, verse 30, Belshazzar, long live Marduk, protect the king, is dead, slain.
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It's too late. God is patient. God is long -suffering. Look at the Ark, 120 years.
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But now Persian's general, Ugburu, comes up through the trench and kills them all.
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Herodotus, the secular historian, confirms it, as so does Xenophon.
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James Montgomery's voice said, Belshazzar's final fling is an example of stupidity.
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Have a big party going on when judgment is coming. Isn't that our society today?
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A huge party when judgment is coming. We know there's judgment because Acts says, because of the resurrection of Christ, we know there's judgment.
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So verse 31, Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about age 62.
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This honored title most likely of Cyrus is Darius and he takes over.
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So what's the lesson for today? It's not just a story. What's the lesson?
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I have a lesson for the unbelievers here and a lesson for the Christian. Number one, if you're an unbeliever, learn from history.
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Learn from history. Hegel said the only thing we learn from history is that we've learned what?
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Nothing from history. Here's a man who thought he was good enough on his own to stand before God.
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It's insane to think that way. One day you're going to die if you're an unbeliever and stand before this
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God, this triune God, and he's going to weigh you and you're going to be found wanting. And you put over on this side of the scale.
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I was good. I went to church. I got baptized. I got catechized. I got confirmed.
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I went on mission trips. I was a church member. I served. I helped people. I was a good citizen and you are weighed and you are found wanting.
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I believe intellectually, but I'm not going to follow Jesus. I'm not going to trust in him. Give me that Jesus for hell insurance.
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You are weighed and found wanting. It's holding too high of an opinion of yourself.
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It's insane. Don't be like Belshazzar who thought nothing could touch him so he partied his whole life.
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Friend, unbelieving friend, you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. The Bible says you're just like a vapor that appears for a little while and then what?
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Vanishes away. Don't be like Belshazzar.
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I am so strong in and of my own righteousness and my own strength. I'm impregnable to any kind of enemy, including
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God. I say with Peter in Acts 2,
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Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ. Learn from history that prideful people will be humbled.
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Learn that God's judgment comes along even though slow to anger. Eventually, you're going to get it.
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You think you can't be touched. That's foolish. Let me tell you the words of Jesus when they said to him,
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Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Here's what Jesus said. These are my words for you. Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?
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He said to them, Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
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And then Jesus told a parable, The land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself,
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What should I do for I have nowhere to store my crops? And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns.
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I'll build larger ones. And there I'll store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.
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Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him,
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And what I say to you through the word of God is, If you will not bow your knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, or if you haven't,
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Fool, you're a fool. You're an absolute fool. Jesus said, Fool, this night your soul is required of you.
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And the things you have prepared, Whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
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Oh, I'll follow later. I'll believe later. I got my own agenda for now. I got my own sin now.
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You found wanted, wanting. The Bible says through the words of Jesus, Accept your righteousness,
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Shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.
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The good news is for you, The sinner is, There's a substitute. There's someone who can bear your sins.
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When I think of this about Christ Jesus, This is the one to whom you're called to look with repentance and faith and trust.
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Although Jesus existed in the form of God, Did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself,
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Taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearances,
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Man, he humbled himself, Jesus did, By becoming obedient to the point of death, Even death on the cross.
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Therefore, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.
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That at the name of Jesus, Every knee shall bow of those who are in heaven and on the earth, You and under the earth,
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That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of Father. Glory of God the
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Father. If you're an unbeliever, You've been weighed and you've been found deficient. So Isaiah 55 says to you,
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Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
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Let him return to the Lord and he will have compassion on him. And to our God, For he will abundantly pardon.
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Don't you want to be abundantly pardoned? Don't you want all your sins to be paid for by Jesus?
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Then come to him in faith. Will you be found wanting or will you be found trusting?
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The hymn says. And for Christians, What do we do with this if we're Christians? How do we look at this?
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In spite of all the superficial appearances that going on in the world, Just like back in this day.
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Jesus is in control. He's in control of everything. Don't you love the sovereignty of God?
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R .C. Sproul said. Sovereignty of God is my favorite doctrine. He said it's God's favorite doctrine too.
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And he said, If you were God, It'd be it'd be your favorite doctrine as God too. I can't find that in the
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Bible. And certainly the cherubim are saying, Holy, holy, holy. But there's something about the sovereignty of God.
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Because God in a providential way is orchestrating everything. And even though we can't see it by faith, we realized,
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You know what? This is for God's glory. This is for my good. When you look backwards in time,
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Oh, you get to see the sovereign hand of God many times. We have a sovereign God.
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Every particle of dust, Spurgeon said, That dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes.
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So you say God's sovereign over who's in the White House, Who's not in the White House, What job you have, all your issues.
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God's sovereign over those. I love that doctrine. It's like the second blessing. Don't ever come up to me and grab my arm and say,
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Mike, I want the best for you. You need a second blessing. Speak in tongues. Because then I'll grab your arm and I'll say, No, you need the second blessing to embrace the sovereignty of God.
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Then you grab my other arm. No, just kidding. That's why I have ushers. Here's my point.
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Think. We look at the world. Doesn't seem like God's in charge many times, does it?
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So why do we read Daniel 5, Our Joseph's account in Genesis 37 to 50,
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And it just shouts out, God's in control. God's in charge. God's got it all taken care of.
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Doesn't matter who you are. God's in charge. Why is it obvious there and not obvious here? So you'll go here and say,
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The same God here is the same God here. That's why. Because it's not obvious in our lives, but it's obvious here.
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Gracie and I are learning about God's attributes. And so I'll say, Listen, here's what you do if you don't know a word.
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Think about the root word. So righteous.
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God's righteous. What's that mean? He's right. He always does the right thing. Got it.
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God's sovereign. Sov, that doesn't seem to make any sense. So reign.
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Yes, reign. He reigns. Immutability.
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Mute. Guess God doesn't talk. Doesn't say much. No, no. This is a different kind of word.
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It means change. Mutant. God never changes.
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He never mutates. The same God of the Scripture is our God too.
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Christian, take heart. I've got some news for you. If you don't fill your mind with Scripture and you fill your mind with Fox News and all kinds of other things,
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I know something about you. You're going to be anxious. You're going to be uncomfortable. You're going to feel frustrated.
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And you're going to think the world is going to hell in the handbasket. And in fact, God is judging America. And it's probably true.
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But you're not looking through the right lens. I'm not after any particular news organization.
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I'm after you to look more often at the Scripture so you see the news rightly. Not against news.
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In spite of appearances, in spite of situations, in spite of Bill O 'Reilly, God is in control. I knew
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I could get you guys on that. If I was in Manhattan, I'd say something about Slate or something like that.
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No wonder Revelation 19 says, Hallelujah for the Lord our God what? Reigns.
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That's why we have to walk by faith and not by sight. Because if you look and you're looking down here, it's like you've got these blinders on like some kind of a horse or something.
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When here we have the Scriptures to see the world rightly. That's why Daniel 5 and the narrative of the Old Testament are so important.
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The Old Testament. So I just go for the New Testament. Well, the Old Testament should be read for lots of reasons.
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It speaks of Christ Jesus, of course. But it gives you history from God's perspective. Don't we need that? So then we can be with the psalmist in Psalm 56.
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In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? Psalm 27.
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The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life.
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Whom shall I dread? The world might be in crisis, but God's not.
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Do you think God really is biting his proverbial fingernails? Wiping the sweat on his bra.
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Oh, you know, I sure hope that works out. You know, I gave all the free will to all these people. And now it doesn't seem like it's kind of coming back to bite me a little bit.
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Joseph, instead of looking at everything. I can't believe. Can you imagine being in prison and going, my brothers, they did that to me.
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My brothers, they did that to me. My brothers did that to me. Genesis 45. It is not you who sold me into Egypt, but I was sent before you by God's will that I might save your life.
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What else can make life bearable if it isn't for the sovereignty of God? What else can comfort us in our sorrow?
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Spurgeon said there's no attribute more comforting to his children than God's sovereignty. And of all the
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Lord's lording and of all the king's king, Jesus Christ is Lord and King. Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we acknowledge now that you're a gracious, generous father to us.
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Holy, holy, holy. That is for certain. Unlike us, separated, pure.
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But also, Father, you're a God who sticks close, closer than a brother. And it's all because of the work that you accomplished through your servant,
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Jesus Christ, who became God with us, Emmanuel. And we're thankful that you, along with the
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Son and the Spirit, are the God of Daniel. And actually, today, you're still the
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God of Daniel because you are alive and Daniel's alive in your presence. And you're the
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God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, all present tense. They're all alive in your presence.
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And we stand before you today as people who are needy of your grace. And we'd ask that you'd help us to be wise when it comes to seeing the world the right way.
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So would you have your spirit direct our thoughts and minds to that? And Father, if there's anyone here who doesn't believe,
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I pray that you'd give them no rest, no sleep until they rest in you by faith alone in Christ Jesus, the only
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Lord. I pray that they'd bow now before they bow later. I pray that they would not be foolish like Belshazzar, prideful and blaspheming.
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And especially after all they've heard today, how much more are they accountable? Today's a day of salvation.
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I pray that you grant that here in our church. In Jesus' name we pray.